Link to video (via TMBLG)

Have you ever wondered what is lost or gained in automated translation services?  Have you ever used a web-based language translation tool like Google Translator or BabelFish and gotten a bizarre result?

An amusing site called Blahblah Fish translates your words into the language of your choice and then back out again into english.  Hilarity ensues.  For fun, I entered some famous lyrics from Lynyrd Skynyrd:

(Original)

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I’m coming home to you

Translated to Russian and back to English:

Sweet domestic Alabama
where the skies is so blue
sweet domestic Alabama lord,
I’m coming home to you

Translated from Spanish and back to English:

Sweet homemade Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet homemade Alabama Gentleman,
I’m that returns to house to you

And my very favorite – Translated to Japanese and back to English:

At the point where the Alabama sky of the sweet house is very blue
Alabama main thing and I’m of the sweet house; where it returns to the house in you.

I think the Japanese translation sounds like a beautiful haiku…maybe better than the original lyrics.

Try it out yourself.

Link to Blahblah Fish (via Neat-o-rama)

- Dave

I’m the internet video link

Learn more about network neutrality here and here and here.

Don’t sound stupid, stop saying “like”.

I hope it makes you, like, smile or something.

-Dave

Originally called the $100 laptop project, it came in at just under $200 each, but still a bargain when you consider all the technology involved in making something like this.

In 2002, MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte experienced first-hand how connected laptops transformed the lives of children and their families in a remote Cambodian village. A seed was planted: If every child in the world had access to a computer, what potential could be unlocked? What problems could be solved? These questions eventually led to the foundation of One Laptop per Child, and the creation of the XO laptop.

The deal is this: you buy 2 laptops for a total of $400 and they donate one laptop to a child and send you the other one.  Pretty cool, huh?  This seems like a great cause to me.  Here is a link to the site if you  are so inclined to help out.

Link

-Dave

The bad: It’s a fucking disaster if you are using a Mac.  I fiddled with it for 2+ hours this evening and managed to crash Mac Mail at least a dozen times and download over 200+ spams to my Blackberry (I’m just lucky I didnt’ have more than 200+ emails in my Gmail account at the time.  Normally I have over a thousand, but cleaned it out recently).  Do you know how long it takes to delete 200+ emails on a Blackberry?  Well, I do.

The ugly:  I am back to POP3 access.  It works fine and with the right filters in Gmail, does exactly what I need it to do.  Unfortunalely, it’s not nearly as useful as IMAP could be.

At least I’m not the only person having these problems.

-Dave

It’s like free money…only not quite as good.

-Dave

The second option is for when I’m feeling lazy.

-Dave

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Now playing: Glenn Miller – American Patrol
via FoxyTunes

This video is a great explanation of exactly what RSS readers are and how they work. I really love it when complicated things can be described in simple terms. Cool stuff.

Video link

-Dave

Having come to the end of our current cell phone contract, Justine and I picked up a pair of Blackberry Curves to check our email, blog, take pictures, etc. My first impressions of the Blackberry Curve is that it does the following things very well: phone, email, mobile maps, calendar, tasks, contacts.

It does the following things very poorly: browsing the internet, mobile media (music, video, photos, etc)

I like the little navigation ball in the center of the phone. It took a little getting used to, but I like it a lot now. I ended up installing a 3rd party browser, Opera Mini, on the phone because the browser that comes standard is quite craptastic.  Theinstant messenger client is also craptastic.  I downloaded Ramble IM and Jive Talk.  I’m not sure which one I’ll keep, but so far, both are better than the one that comes standard with the phone.  The messaging isn’t quite as good as my old Treo.  I miss the conversation grouping the Treo used by default.

Speaking of the actual phone, the sounds quality is clear and the volume controls are easy to get to.

Overall I’d give it 7 0r 8 on a scale of 1 – 10.

- Dave

P.S. – I figured out quickly how to turn off the annoying chime and vibrate function when each email arrives.  Otherwise I would lose my mind.

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Now playing: Air – Electronic Performers
via FoxyTunes